Withered Rose
by IntoTheWilds
Summary: ONE-SHOT: Freedom comes at a heavy price, and no one knows that better then Ari San, a boy who would've been normal and happy, had it not been for a father with a God complex and numerous men with the need to reshape the world. Murderer by design, rather then choice, Ari is set on a path he never expected, and one he isn't sure he wants...


_**DISCLAIMER: **I do not own Elfen Lied or its Characters!_

_**SUMMARY: **'__Blood upon the ground,  
can I see it?  
I think I do,  
since I caused it._

Red stains on the floors,  
whispered tears,  
and closed doors...'  


_Freedom comes at a heavy price, and no one knows that better then Ari San, a boy who would've been normal and happy, had it not been for a father with a God complex and numerous men with the need to reshape the world. Murderer by design, rather then choice, Ari is set on a path he never expected, and one he isn't sure he wants...  
_

* * *

Mitsuko shook violently, her blonde hair matted with blood, but not her own. She coward before the figure who stood above her, red falling in spirals along his left arm from the bullet wound in his shoulder, but still the boy did not fall. A steel mask hid his face, a pair of black combats his only clothing, a light glimmer of sun seeping in through his single escape route decorating his pale white skin. Leah, the lab supervisor kept a hand firmly placed on Mitsuko's back, warning the shaking secretary not, under any circumstances, to move.

It was all that separated them from life and death. All ready the boy, single handily had dismantled a group of fully trained soldiers, forty-two men sure they were about to die anyway, each carrying an AK-47 assault rifle that proved to be nothing to the creature. Altogether they had shot over five thousand 7.62mm bullets at him and only one managed to penetrate his skin.

The boy you see was a Diclonious, the only known male on earth. His name was Ari San, but they called him Sipelit No. 36. Ari possessed twenty-eight vectors and was the only known Diclonious to make it to the age of nineteen and he would make sure that continued.

All that was stopping him was Mitsuko and Leah.

Raising a bloodied hand Ari clenched his fingers and at the same time Doctor Leah doubled over howling in pain. The boy spoke then, it was muffled but coherent.

"You cannot stop me, if you cannot walk."

There erupted a horrible ripping sound and Leah's screams became more profound, that is until his spine exploded from his flesh and he went limp. Blood splattered, a sliver of organs went flying and despite not being able to move the good doctor was still, unfortunately for him, alive. Gurgling noises came in vile coughs, as he retched up blood. By now Mitsuko had started screaming and this more then anything irritated Ari. Noise, all it was, was pointless noise tearing into his eardrums and he wanted it too stop, all of it to stop.

His attention fell quickly to the idiot woman as he weighed his options. Ari could hear the quick, rapid footsteps approaching from upper and lower levels and wondered did he have time for one last pointless kill.

Rather not chancing his luck, he made for the side entrance and escaped into a mass of sunshine, crashing waves and a flurry of unexpected and not thought of bullets.

The Guards froze, guns poised to shoot. Cowards, frightened little worms quivering like cornered mongrels. It made Ari sick with disgust to watch them. He discarded the first round and waited for their next move. A chuckle bubbled up in his throat, icy, bitter, a frigid sound. Fifteen soldiers stood ready to attack, fingers on the triggers and yet they waited for an order, a few simple words that could kill Ari or destroy them, typical that they didn't possess enough brain power to use their own discretion. Clenching his already too small fists, from malnutrition, Ari fought down the rage already sadistically surging through the boy's brittle frame. They just didn't learn. Turning his head slightly he smirked beneath the metal encasing his face, as his eyes locked on one of the fifteen soldiers who looked barely older then himself, a boy of no more then twenty years, pale, freckled and sporting a mess of bright red curls. Quite obviously the youth shook, his 39.5 inched M16 shuddering visibly in his grasp. It was amusing to see what no more was a child clinging to a loaded steel weapon weighing in at 8.79lbs. Due to this humorous notion, Ari had decided the scrawny red-head would be the first to die.

The young soldier let out a high-pitched howl, unlike anything the fifteen trained men had ever heard in their soon to be short lived lives' and then the skies rained blood as his arms were torn from his body. It spurted violently in great torrents, painting the grey stoned surface a sickening shade. Splattering some poor fool who had been the closest to the unfortunate child. Laughing manically Ari crossed his fragile arms despite the injury to his left and shouting out a spill of vile profanities he spanned them wide, at the same time the red-head, who the men had been calling Sammy as they frantically cried out to him, roared, his bitter screams rising in a horrible murderous crescendo, when in one brutal moment his legs ripped clean away from his bulk, adding to the already growing spill of vibrant blood. Tears streamed down Sammy's face as he fell forward into the red mess, crying out harsh wails, that none would ever forget, if they were lucky enough to walk away alive. With whatever strength that still roamed his broken and mangled remains; Sammy stared up at Ari's still form through emerald green eyes, animated from pure fear.

"P—Please," he pleaded. The words coming up in a gurgled sound as fresh blood swam up his throat, dribbling down his chin. "Don't, Pl-ease."

For what seemed minutes Ari stared at him, almost as if he were considering Sammy's begging. But then.

"You are not a life I care for."

This time, Sammy didn't scream or shout, for the poor lad couldn't since his head was shredded from his neck, landing right beside his smashed frame, dead and awash with congealing ruby red disarray, a silence fell over the soldier's fallen comrade.

That is until, a brutish soldier named Kael with sloe-black skin, beady blue eyes, and a bald head, which was the interesting width of a tree, erupted in a burst of rage and in one tactless and highly idiotic move let loose a round 5.56 mm bullets. A chalky dust billowed up from the flinty earth as most of the either badly aimed or suddenly controlled shells embedded themselves deeply into the pebbled floor. One, however, escaped Ari's detection and sliced through his steel fortified mask, amazingly enough though all it did was shatter the metal leaving Ari uninjured. The casing broke away landing at his feet, a cascading wave of red-pink hair fell in coils down the Diclonious' back, stopping right at his thin sunken waist. Horns or temporal protrusions jutted up from his scalp, a feral sneer on his pale white lips. Laughing he narrowed his strange pinkish purple eyes toward Kael before saying.

"You missed and now it's my turn."

An explosion burst up from the ground, drowning out the men's cries of shock and the noise of the waves crashing against the cliff face. A fog of debris surrounded Ari and when it finally dispersed, Kael sucked in a breath of sheer terror. Using all twenty-eight vectors Ari had freed all the bullets that Kael had shot from his M16 and they now floated eerily around him. The bulky, Nigerian had a minutes panic before over thirty rounds of ammunition carved themselves into his soft flesh, fraying him like ragged fabric. Only then did all hell break loose. Ari quickly and carefully, dismembered and disembowelled thirteen armed forces before walking across a sea of blood-shed, severed limbs and vast amount of gore. Coming to the crumbling edge of a ten foot Cliffside Ari turned back for one last look of the lab facility that held him prisoner for nineteen years. Strands of hair whipped over his shoulders and face, a genuine smile curved his lips. A man hid himself in the shadows, but Ari knew who he was. Walking backward, red and yellow lights blazing, alarms still blaring ear-piercingly, the young Diclonious raised his right arm, saluted the unseen stranger and jumping backward dived into the frothy depths below.

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~

* * *

~2 days later~

It was a beautiful sun filled day and Nana, Kouta, Mayu and Mayu's little dog Wanta were making the most of the baking heat by spending the whole day at the beach near their home. The same beach Kouta and his cousin Yuka had found Nyu who had turned out to be a cynically deranged Diclonious named Lucy. Sadly Yuka was caught up with a college assignment and couldn't join them. The two young teenage girls danced back and forth, each one side of a volley ball net, giggles gushed from them as they pounded the sand-covered ball between them. Every few minutes Mayu laughed aloud and finally called out to Nana.

"No fair! You can't use your vectors to win!"

Nana bent over leaning on her knees as she pulled in ragged breaths. A pretty floral sun hat sat atop of her head covering her horns, and partly her vivid pink hair. Wind puffing up her baby blue dress Nana smiled up at Maya a short chuckle bubbling in her throat.

"Well, can't blame me for it. I just can't win against you."

Wanta yipped happily at Mayu's heals as the girl of fourteen took Nana by the hand, the two making their way to where Kouta had set up a picnic. Letting a surprised yelped Mayu pulled her straw sun hat back down over her short black hair, just as an enthusiastic gust of wind attempted to pull it from her head and held her red and white dress down as it tried it's hardest to blow it up. Smiling Nana pulled her down onto the checker blanket Kouta had laid out for them.

"Okay girls," Kouta beamed clapping his hands together earnestly, "There's cucumber, banana and salmon with mayonnaise."

"My favourites," Nana squealed with delight as she placed a sandwich on her paper plate.

Contentedly the three teen's and dog munched away. Gorging on a feast of sandwiches, salted pretzels, pastries and non-alcoholic fruit punch. All the while unaware they were being watched.

Ari San studied the two humans with curiosity, surprised the third, a girl in a pretty blue dress was actually a Diclonious. Diclonaii have the ability to sense each others brainwaves, but unlike every other Diclonious Ari could choose who could sense him and who couldn't, which was why Nana hadn't picked up on him. Tilting his head to the side he chewed his bottom lip, so desperate for the food they shared and yet made no move to approach them. He most certainly could, if he wanted to kill all three and take the food, but despite the obvious violent tendencies of Diclonaii, Ari had enough self control to know when not draw attention to himself. Flinching a little at the pain in his left shoulder he stood. The ocean water had cleaned away the blood, and all it looked like was a terrible gash that had scabbed over, sorry to say a pale liquid that didn't smell pleasant had begun seeping from it. Ari was in dire need of a doctor.

Instead, turning on his heal he headed for town.

The streets were packed, regardless of the blistering heat searing down upon them and of course it was market day. Women hollered about homemade jewellery that looked more like bent wire covered in poorly painted pasta shells, appalling rugs and an assortment of what was supposedly hand stitched gowns, which looked tremendously like potato sacks with sleeves. Strategically Ari had wrapped thick pieces of his waist-length hair around his horns, pulling the rest over his left to hide his throbbing shoulder. All he looked like was a pale, bare-chested teen with a wild taste in hair colour blissfully absorbing the sun and hopefully not a partially crazed new branch of the human species. Once or twice small children knocked into him while he walked through hordes of shoppers, tourists and the odd guard on patrol. Ignoring every one of them he found himself at a stall selling clothes for young and middle-aged men, eyes slipping sideways he was delighted to find the heavily weighted stall-man very much distracted with three other customers.

Sneaky as a thief the young Diclonious grabbed a pair of Nike runners, a black t-shirt decorated with the head of a tiger, a camouflage jacket and 2 bandannas'. Sneering over his victory, Ari disappeared down the deserted alley the clothes stall had been situated by. Quickly he pulled on the runners, glad of the warmth flooding his iced toes and placing the rest of his pile on the lid of a large bin he wrapped one of the stolen bandannas around his oozing shoulder, gritting his teeth and swearing to himself to get his hands on a first aid kit first chance he could. With that tended to he tugged on the t-shirt and jacket, pulling his hair loose and covering his horns with the second bandanna. All that time inquisitive street cats watched him as if he were the most interesting thing in the world or that they might be lucky to get fed by him.

But Ari had other things on his mind, first on his list, dinner.


End file.
